Warlords of Draenor Shaman Changes

This post covers all of the changes to Shaman in Warlords of Draenor: talents, class abilities, specializations, glyphs, crowd control, and blue tweet clarifications. We've added in changed spell effects, set bonuses, and armor models as the beta has grown.

Last update: October 23(Note: This guide is intended to be an overview of changes between Mists of Pandaria and Warlords of Draenor. Due to its popularity, we have included Patch Note updates for 6.1, but its main purpose is to compare the two expansions.)

Highlights

Shaman had a number of extra abilities that were consolidated to provide a smoother rotation flow.

Weapon Imbues were removed as there was always one right answer for each specialization. As a result, the appropriate Weapon Imbue is now passive to each spec, or abilities are tuned around its removal.

Rolling Thunder is consolidated and merged into Fulmination. The mana recovery component is removed due to other mana changes, and the random chance was removed while the maximum stack size was increased to compensate. As Elemental Overload has a source of randomness, having Rolling Thunder be random was redundant.

Enhancement suffers from having damage split among so many sources, so damage and abilities have been changed to reorganize damage into fewer and more impactful abilities.

Elemental Shamans are a spec that is greatly impacted by movement. In WoD, Blizzard is pulling back on the ability for casters to deal damage while moving, so Lightning Bolt is no longer castable while moving by default. Elemental Shaman can still deal damage while moving through Shocks, Unleash weapon, and instant Lava Burst.

Multistrike is quite similar to Elemental Overload, so the two were merged. Elemental Shaman then received a new mastery that emphasized the Shaman's connection to the earth and helps Shaman still deal damage while moving: Mastery: Molten Earth

Restoration Shaman had the most passive and smart healing out of all healers, so that received some reductions.

When browsing the spell changes below and noticing that a coefficient has changed, keep in mind that the following changes have been made:

Each point of Agility or Strength now grants 1 Attack Power (down from 2). All other sources of Attack Power now grant half as much as before.

Intellect no longer provides an increased chance to critically strike with spells.

The base chance to critically strike is now 5% for all classes. There are no longer different chances to critically strike with melee, ranged, and spells.

Weapon Damage values on all weapons have been reduced by 20%.

Attack Power now increases Weapon Damage at a rate of 1 DPS per 3.5 Attack Power (up from 1 DPS per 14 Attack Power).

Attack Power, Spell Power, or Weapon Damage now affect the entire healing or damage throughput of player spells.

Patch 6.1 Updates

Blizzard

Talents

Ancestral Guidance now triggers from all damage or healing dealt, including multistrikes, instead of only direct damage or healing.

Frozen Power should no longer cause Frost Shock to trigger a new Mastery: Molten Earth (Elemental). Note that this does not stop Molten Earth effects that are already in progress or in the process of being triggered.

3D Armor Models

In Warlords of Draenor, not all raid gear will look alike. Tier 17 (Normal, Heroic) will share styles with Conquest gear. Mythic gear will share styles with top-tier PvP gear. Check out more sets in our Warlords of Draenor Transmog Guide!

Click the images to view the Shaman T17 sets in our 3D Modelviewer.

Set Bonuses

Some of these set bonuses may be placeholders and are subject to change. Set bonuses in Warlords of Draenor have changed to be spec-specific, instead of one very wordy tooltip covering different aspects for each spec.

New Spell Effects

Talents

Click here to see a complete list of Warlords of Draenor Shaman talents.

Elemental and Enhancement

Elemental Fusion: Your Lava Burst and Lava Lash increase the damage of your next Shock by 50%40%, stacking up to 2 times.

Storm Elemental Totem: Summons an Air Totem with 60646051 health at the feet of the caster, calling forth a Greater Storm Elemental to hurl gusts of wind at the caster's enemies. Each gust of wind does damage to the enemy, and then heals all allies within 15 yards for 100% of the damage dealt, split evenly. Lasts 1 min.

Liquid Magma: Empowers your current Fire totem with the power of lava, causing liquid magma to erupt from it toward random enemies within 40 yards every 0.5 sec for 10 sec. Each glob of liquid magma deals (40.125%27.5% of Spell power) Fire damage to all enemies within 4 yards.

Restoration

Cloudburst Totem: Summons a Water Totem with 5 health at the feet of the caster for 15 sec that collects power from all healing spells and their multistrikes.When the Cloudburst Totem is destroyed, replaced, or expires, the stored power is released, healing all injured allies within 40 yards for a total of 20% of all healing done while it was active, split evenly between them.

Storm Elemental Totem: Summons an Air Totem with 60006064 health at the feet of the caster, calling forth a Greater Storm Elemental to hurl gusts of wind at the caster's enemies. Each gust of wind does damage to the enemy, and then heals all allies within 15 yards for 100% of the damage dealt, split evenly. Lasts 1 min.

High Tide: Your Chain Heal also bounces to 2 targets affected by your Riptide, and no longer diminishes in power with each bounce.

Ancestral Guidance: For the next 10 sec, 40% of damage or 60% of20% your direct damage and healing is converted to healing on up to 3 nearby injured party or raid members.

Ancestral Swiftness: ncreases haste by 5% and attack speed by 5% at all times. When activated, your next Nature spell with a base casting time less than 10 sec. becomes instant.

Echo of the Elements: When one of your spells causes direct damage or healing, youYour spells and abilities have a chance to gaintrigger Echo of the Elements. duplicating that spell's effect.Echo of the Elements causes your next short cooldown spell or ability (Lava Burst, Frost Shock, or Earthquake for Elemental; Lava Lash, Stormstrike, or Fire Nova for Enhancement; Riptide, Unleash Life, Purify Spirit for Restoration) to not incur its cooldown.

Glyphs

Glyph of Frostbrand Weapon: While your weapon is imbued with Flametongue Weapon, your attacks also slow the target's movement speed by 50% for 3 sec.

Glyph of Ghostly Speed: Ghost Wolf grants an additional 60% movement speed, but can no longer be used while in combat.This effect is disabled in battlegrounds and arenas and cannot be combined with other temporary speed bonuses.

Glyph of Ghostly Speed: Ghost Wolf grants an additional 60% movement speed. This movement speed bonus will not be granted if Ghost Wolf is activated while in combat.This effect is disabled in battlegrounds and arenas and cannot be combined with other temporary speed bonuses.speed increases.

Enhanced Weapons: You imbue your weapons with the power of wind and fire.Each of your main-hand weapon attacks has a 20% chance of triggering three extra attacks dealing 70%40% weapon damage.Each of your off-hand weapon attacks causes up to (0.149 * Attack power) additional Fire damage, based on weapon speed.

Fulmination: When you have more than 1While Lightning Shield is active, damage and multistrike damage from your Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning spells generate an additional Lightning Shield charge, active, yourup to a maximum of 15 charges.Your Earth Shock spell will consume any surplus charges, instantlycharges beyond 1, dealing their total damage to the enemy target.

Feral Spirit: Summons two Spirit Wolves that aid the Shaman in battle, lasting 30 sec. Spirit Wolves are immune to movement-impairing effects, and their attacks heal them and their master. for 50% of damage done.

Fire Nova: 4.5 sec cooldown, up from 4 sec. Ignites your Flame Shock spell on any nearby enemies, causing each of them to emit a wave of flames that deals 83 to 96 (+ 30%48.0697% of Spell power) Fire damage to every other enemy within 10 yards.

Lava Lash: 10.5 sec cooldown, up from 10 sec. Now 1.0% of base mana, down from 4.0%. You charge your off-hand weapon with lava, instantly dealing 312%400% Fire damage to an enemy target and spreading your Flame Shock from the target to up to four6 enemies within 12 yards. Damage is increased by 40% if your off-hand weapon is enchanted with Flametongue.

Maelstrom Weapon: Does not apply to Hex anymore. When you deal damage with a melee weapon, you have a chance to reducegain an application of Maelstrom Weapon. Each application of Maelstrom Weapon reduces the cast time and mana cost of your next Nature spell with a base cast time shorter than 10 seconds by 20%. Does not apply to Ancestral Spirit or Hex. Stacks up to 5 times.Lasts 30 sec. Now also increases the direct healing of affected spells by 10% per application

Magma Totem: Now Enhancement only. Summons a Fire Totem with 5 health at the feet of the caster for 1 min that causes (5.3%10.2% of Spell power) Fire damage to creatures within 8 yards every 2 seconds.

Mental Quickness: Your spell power is now equal to 65% of your attack power, and you no longer benefit from other sources of spell power.Your instant spells and totems cost 75% less mana and your shock spells cost 90% less mana.Your melee attacks have a 40%101% chance to immediately restore X% of your mana.

Chain Heal: Now Restoration only. Now 14.2% of base mana, down from 22.5%. Heals the friendly target for 397 to 453 (+ 68.76%162.5% of Spell power), then jumps to heal the most injured nearby targets. Healing is reduced by 15%10% after each jump. If cast on a party or raid member, the heal will only jump to other members. Heals 4 total targets.

Earth Shield: Now 12.6% of base mana, down from 19.0%. Protects the target with an earthen shield, increasing the effectiveness of Shaman healing spells on that target by 20%, and causing attacks to heal the shielded target for 0 (+ Spell power * 0.49863%). 9 charges. Lasts 10 min. This effect can only occur once every few seconds. Earth Shield can only be placed on one target at a time, only one Earth Shield may be on a target at a time, and only one of your Elemental Shields can be active on you at once.

Healing Stream Totem: Summons a Water Totem with 5 health at the feet of the caster that heals the mostan injured party or raid member within 40 yards for 0.4440.2571) * 1)] every 2 sec. Lasts 15 sec.

Healing Wave: Now 10.4% of base mana, down from 19.5%. Heals a friendly target for (273.337%412.5% of Spell power).

Lava Burst: .5% of base mana, down from 1.0% You hurl molten lava at the target, dealing (92.448%77% of Spell power) Fire damage. Lava Burst will always deal a critical strike. If your Flame Shock is on the target, Lava Burst will deal 50% additional damage.

Restorative Waves: Increases the effectiveness of your healing spells by 25%, the healing done by your Water Totems by an additional 50%, and the healing done by your Healing Rain by an additional 100%.In addition, heals you castYour heals increase allies' maximum health by 10% of the amount healed, up to a maximum of 10% of their health.

Riptide: Now 9.0% of base mana, down from 12.0%. Heals a friendly target for 209 (+ 33.9%138% of Spell power) and another 594 (+ 96%180% of Spell power) over 18 sec. Your Chain Heal spell is 25% more effective when the primary target is affected by your Riptide

Tidal Waves: When you cast Chain Heal or Riptide, you gain the Tidal Waves effect, which reduces the cast time of your nextHealing Wave and Greater Healing Wave spells by 30%20% andor increases the critical effect chance of your next Healing Surge spell by 30%. 2 charges.

Ancestral Awakening, Restoration: When you critically heal with a single-target direct heal, you summon an ancestral spirit to aid you, instantly healing the most injured party or raid target within 40 yards for 30% of the amount healed.

Earthliving Weapon, Restoration: Imbue the Shaman's weapon with earthen life. Increases spell healing by 2873 and gives each heal up to a 20% chance to trigger the Earthliving effect on the target, healing an additional 4376 (+ 39.84% of Spell power) over 12 sec. Single-target direct heals on targets below 35% of maximum health will always trigger this effect. Lasts 60 minutes.

Earthquake. Elemental: You cause the earth at the target location to tremble and break, dealing Physical damage every 1 sec to enemies in an 8 yard radius, with a 10% chance of knocking down affected targets. Lasts 10 sec.

Elemental Focus, Elemental: When you land a non-periodic critical strike with a Fire, Frost, or Nature damage spell, you enter a Clearcasting state. The Clearcasting state reduces the mana cost of your next 2 damage or healing spells by 25%, increases spell damage done by 20%, and increases single-target healing done by 50%.

Mana Tide Totem, Restoration: Summons a Water Totem with 10% of the caster's health at the feet of the caster for 16 sec. Party and raid members within 40 yards of the totem gain 200% of the caster's Spirit (excluding short - duration Spirit bonuses).

Rolling Thunder, Elemental: When you deal damage with Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning while your Lightning Shield ability is active, you have a 60% chance to recover 2% of your mana and to generate an additional Lightning Shield charge, up to a maximum of 7 charges.

Draenor Perks

Draenor Perks are a new type of leveling reward in WoD. When leveling from 91-100, every other level you'll be randomly assigned one Draenor Perk each level that's appropriate to your class/spec, and when you hit 100 you'll have learned all of them. Instead of getting new abilities as you level, you'll get powerful enhancements to your existing core abilities.

Class Abilities

Ascendance: 2.5% of base mana, down from 5.2% For Enhancement: While in the form of an Air Ascendant, autoattacks and Stormstrike deal pure Nature damage and have a 30-yardauto-attacks and Stormstrike become Wind attacks, bypassing armor, and having a 30 yard range. This spell has been expanded to have a different spell ID for each specialization.

Bloodlust: Increases melee, ranged, and spell haste by 30% for all party and raid members within 100 yards. Lasts 40 sec.Allies receiving this effect will become Sated and be unable to benefit from Bloodlust or Time Warp again for 10 min.

Earth Elemental Totem: Summons an Earth Totem with 5436064 health at the feet of the caster, calling forth a Greater Earth Elemental to protect the caster and his allies. Lasts 1 min.

Fire Elemental Totem: Summons a Fire Totem with 5436064 health at the feet of the caster, calling forth a Greater Fire Elemental to rain destruction on the caster's enemies. Lasts 1 min.

Flame Shock: 1.3% of base mana, down from 5.0% Sears the target with fire, causing (32.1642%35% of Spell power) Fire damage and then an additional (192.985%210% of Spell power) Fire damage over 30 sec.

Frost Shock: Now 1.3% of base mana, down from 21.1% Instantly shocks an enemy with frost, dealing 68 to 71 (+ 51%36.594% of Spell power) Frost damage and reducing the target's movement speed by 50%. Lasts 8 sec. Causes a high amount of threat.

Grace of Air: Empowering winds swirl around the Shaman, granting all nearby party and raid members 11141 Mastery and 5% haste.

Healing Rain: Healing rains blanket the area targeted by the Shaman, restoring health to up to 6 allies in the area over 10 sec.Healing effectiveness diminishes for each player beyond 6 within the area.

Healing Surge: Now 20.7% of base mana, down from 34.3%. Heals a friendly target for 655 to 747 (+ 113.5%412.5% of Spell power)

Heroism: Increases melee, ranged, and spell haste by 30% for all party and raid members within 100 yards. Lasts 40 sec.Allies receiving this effect will become Exhausted and be unable to benefit from Heroism or Time Warp again for 10 min.

Lightning Bolt: 1.8% of base mana, down from 7.1%. Fires a bolt of lightning at the target, dealing (+ 73.9% 100%88% of Spell power) Nature damage.

Lightning Shield: The caster is surrounded by a reactive lightning barrier. When a an attack hits the caster, the attacker will be struck for 35 (+ 38.8%22.6305% of Spell power) Nature damage. This effect may only occur once every few seconds. Lasts 1 hour. Only one of your Elemental Shields can be active on you at once.

Magma Totem: Summons a Fire Totem with 5 health at the feet of the caster for 1 min that causes 17 (+ 6.7%0 (+ 5.3% of Spell power) Fire damage to creatures within 8 yards every 2 seconds.

Searing Totem: 3.0% of base mana, down from 5.9% Summons a Fire Totem with 5 health at the feet of the caster for 1 min that repeatedly attacks an enemy within 0 to 25 yards for (14.8726%20% of Spell power) Fire damage.

Tremor Totem: Summons an Earth Totem with 5 health at the feet of the caster that shakes the ground around it for 610 sec, removing Fear, Charm and Sleep effects from party and raid members within 30 yards.This totem may be dropped even while the caster is afflicted with such effects.

Unleash Elements: Now 7.5% of base mana, down from 8.2%. Focuses the elemental force imbued in the Shaman's weaponry, with the concentrated effects depending on the enchantment unleashed.See individual weapon imbue spell tooltips for details regarding the effects of unleashing each.Unleashes elemental forces of Flame and Wind, increasing the damage done by the Shaman's next Fire spell by 40%, and increasing the Shaman's attack speed by 60% for the next 6 swings.

Wind Shear: Disrupts the target's concentration with a burst of wind, interrupting spellcasting and preventing any spell in that school from being cast for 3 sec.Also lowers your threat, making the enemy less likely to attack you.

Bind Elemental: Binds the target hostile elemental for up to 50 sec. The bound unit is unable to move, attack or cast spells. Any damage caused will release the target. Only one target can be bound at a time.

Burning Wrath: Fiery elemental energy emanates from the Shaman, empowering all nearby party and raid members and increasing their spell power by 10%.

Rockbiter Weapon: Imbue the Shaman's weapon with the fury of the earth, increasing all threat generation by 30% and reducing damage taken by 5%. Lasts 60 minutes.

Stormlash Totem: Summons an Air Totem with 5 health at the feet of the caster, empowering allies within 40 yards with lightning. While empowered, allies' spells and attacks will trigger bursts of electricity, dealing additional Nature damage to their target. Lasts 10 sec.

Blue Tweets

Blizzard has lately been very active on Twitter, posting clarifications on WoD developments in response to user questions. We track all of the significant tweets with our Blue Tweet Tracker, which lets you filter conversations by developer and significance.

These class tweets are grouped by month and topic--some of the earlier tweets are included for archival purposes, but may reflect outdated design choices.

Ability Consolidation and Refinement

Shaman had a number of extra abilities that were consolidated to provide a smoother rotation flow. Mana regeneration and mana costs for Elemental and Enhancement were made compensate for abilities removed via Ability Pruning. The removal of Weapon Imbues was significant. There was always one right answer for each specialization, and so we made the appropriate Weapon Imbue passive to each spec, or tuned abilities around its removal.

Finally, there's the removal of Rolling Thunder. In concept, this is a simple merger of Rolling Thunder into Fulmination, but also with some consolidation of its effects; the mana recovery component was removed along with other mana changes, and the random chance was removed while maximum stack size was increased to compensate. The randomness in Rolling Thunder became redundant, because there already was a source of randomness in Elemental Overload now that Multistrikes trigger it.

Enhanced Weapons is a new passive ability available to Enhancement Shaman, causing main-hand weapon attacks to have a chance to trigger 3 extra attacks, and off-hand weapon attacks to deal additional fire damage.

Flurry's duration has been increased to 30 seconds.Frost Shock no longer generates additional threat.Greater Healing Wave has been renamed to Healing Wave.Healing Tide Totem now heals all party or raid members, but amount healed per target has been reduced to compensate.Lava Lash now spreads Flame Shock to up to 6 nearby enemies (up from 4 enemies).Rolling Thunder has been removed.

Elemental Shaman Mana regeneration has been increased by 50% to compensate.

Shamanistic Rage no longer reduces Mana costs while active.Thunderstorm no longer regenerates Mana.Totems will no longer cause hostile creatures to enter combat with the Shaman based on proximity.Unleash Elements has been split into different versions based on specialization.

Unleash Elements is now available only to Enhancement Shaman, and now increases attack speed by 60% (up from 50%), and increases the damage of the Shaman's next Fire spell by 40% (up from 30%), but no longer deals direct damage or requires an enemy target.

Unleash Flame has been made into a separate ability available only to Elemental Shaman, and now increases the damage of the Shaman's next Fire spell by 40% (up from 30%), but no longer deals direct damage or requires an enemy target.

Unleash Life has been made into a separate ability available only to Restoration Shaman, and now heals an ally and increases the effect of the Shaman's next direct heal by 30%.

Unleashed Fury now provides similar benefits, but applied as buffs to the Shaman, instead of debuffs to an enemy. For Enhancement Shamans, it now grants 5% increase Multistrike chance instead of causing your auto attacks to trigger Static Shock.

Elemental and Enhancement Changes

For Elemental and Enhancement, we had a few problems to solve. Enhancement suffers from having their damage split among so many damage sources that none of it feels impressive. We changed the damage of several abilities to try to reorganize their damage into fewer, more impactful abilities, while keeping the net total the same. For a long time Elemental Shaman was one of the specializations most impacted by movement, at a time where other casters were increasingly able to cast while moving.

In Warlords of Draenor, we're pulling back on the ability for many casters to deal damage while moving, and that includes Elemental. They will still have some ability to deal damage while moving, through Shocks, Unleash Weapon, and instant Lava Bursts. For Chain Lightning, we wanted to reduce the impact of Haste soft capping, and so changed Shamanism to increase damage instead of reduce cast time. Additionally, we simplified Wind Shear by removing its impact on threat, which no longer matters.

Ascendance for the Enhancement specialization now changes the Shaman's auto attacks and Stormstrike to deal Wind-based physical damage that bypasses armor.

One of the new secondary stats Multistrike, functions very similarly to Elemental Overload. We wanted to keep Mastery and Multistrike feeling distinct, but also know how iconic and important Elemental Overload is for Elemental Shaman. So, we decided to merge the two together with Multistrike driving Elemental Overload, and give the Elemental specialization a new Mastery. For the new Mastery, we wanted to strengthen the Elemental Shaman's connection to earth energies, and added damage that continues while the Shaman is moving. The summary of all this is that if you liked Mastery before, favor Multistrike instead for the same effect. Or try out the new Mastery: Molten Earth. Chain Lightning and Earthquake were also improved significantly to offset the fact that Elemental Overload was a massive buff to it, but Mastery: Molten Earth is not.

Elemental Overload is now a regular passive ability and is no longer increased by Mastery. It grants 35% increased Multistrike damage and healing, and an additional 20% to Multistrike chance. It also increases the amount of the Multistrike stat gains from all sources by 5%, serving as Elemental's Secondary Stat attunement.

Miscellaneous

Blue Posts on Class Changes

Hey Eleshams. I'll start this off similarly to how I have with other specs tonight... Frustration is understandable, given the changes happening in Warlords. Lets have some constructive discussion.

First, I'd like to comment on the nerfs today. Nerfs can be troubling, I get that. But this is beta, and these nerfs are just number changes. They are not a bad thing. They're simple number reductions because your DPS was too high. DPS tuning will happen, and this is the first step in that. Especially on beta, it can be very hard to have a good sense of how you compare to other specs. And with the squish changing how numbers are perceived in general, most of you probably had no clue that you were a little overpowered, and that's fine. Let me reiterate that the goal here is for you to be on par with all of the DPS. You should be equal with everyone, from the Arcane Mage to the Destruction Warlock.

1. Healing Talents need immediate love/attention. Make a decision - Either boost our Single Target to match us with other Specs, or give us our Hybrid Utility back. My use in MoP raiding revolved around the power of Shaman Utility. I'm starting to worry about my impact when the entire level 75 talent line is garbage.

Simply put, we want Elemental Shamans to be brought for their strong DPS, not their poor DPS and strong offheals. We're reducing *everyone*'s offhealing capabilities, and Shamans had some of the most of anyone.

2. Level 100 Talents are filler? I'm feeling lost here about the goal to this tier. Obviously you want it to be a DPS tier but right now I see it as:

I want the talents to integrate into my rotation. I was really - really hoping that our Level 100 talents could fix the dull aspect to our rotation that is honestly...a snooze to pull off most of the time.

A. Won't be bad. Needs tuning. B. Won't be bad. Needs tuning. C. Will continue being not bad, and the bug where it doesn't work with Fire Elemental will be fixed.

3. Earthquake

OK. Earthquake is a big topic, so lets go for it. Earthquake has been around for a long time, but it's been almost as long since it's actually been used significantly. And Elemental has one of the most fun, visceral, cool AoE spells in the game: Chain Lightning. So why are we trying to force Earthquake into the rotation now, instead of just cutting it? That's a totally fair question.

There are a few reasons. Chain Lightning is great, but it can also get monotonous, spamming a single button for all AoE situations, and basically nothing else. We want to add a *little* spice to that. The vast vast majority of your AoE/cleaving should still be Chain Lightning spam, and we don't want to step on that. But we think that adding one different spell every ~10sec or so adds a fine bit of texture rotation.

Another reason is that we feel like we've failed on fulfilling one aspect of the Elemental fantasy: the elements. Fire (check). Air (check, lightning falls under this). Water (that's more of Resto's thing). And Earth. Where was the Earth? Ele shamans were feeling too much like the "Fire+Lightning Wizard", and not enough of the "Master of the Elements". That led us to including Earthquake, and adding Molten Earth.

And finally, skill. Here's where we get into why it has all of those so-called "QoL problems". It may be hard to see this vision, because AoE DPS tuning hasn't happened yet, but here's our vision for Earthquake: You won't be able to use it in every situation. It'll take a lot of skill and planning to use effectively. It may even require some cooperation from your tank, depending upon the situation. When all of those criteria aren't met, it's fine, you still have Chain Lightning to fall back on, and you'll still do totally solid DPS that way, and it's incredibly easy to use, in virtually any situation. But when all of those pieces *do* line up, the payoff should be extremely strong. It's an additional bonus on top of your expected AoE DPS.

Don't think of it as "that spell I'm forced to use and is so hard-to-use". Think of it as "that niche spell that I sometimes get to use skillfully for great gains".

4. Echo of the Elements - I like this move but it needs a few clarity fixes. Right now its Impact is minimal. I believe it's only Lava Burst that's affected? Maybe you can attach it to Elemental Blast and Earth Shock (Which again would make our AoE/CLeave more engaging if we could ES more often). I get the concept of wanting to make Multistrike it's own thing, but since Ele Shaman's foundations were built on Multistrike - I feel the class is losing out on what made it special. (Edit - while making this post I saw that EQ is affected by EotE. Again..I hate EQ so I could care less. Also Frost shock...but I'm focused on PvE - not PvP).

Yes, it's primarily for Lava Burst (single target) and Earthquake (AoE) in PvE. We tried having it on several other abilities, but the downsides outweighed the upsides, we found (ie, you accidentally use it on Earth Shock, when you wanted to use it on Lava Burst).

5. Molten Earth - Hopefully we see tuning on this mastery to make it do more damage. Yes...It's a passive - but I like the idea of dumping a lot of my stats into mastery for progression on a Movement heavy fight. Right now though...it's a waste of stats not to mention it's secondary effect is to buff EQ (which I rather not cast).

Tuning will happen. I don't think it's far off from right, currently, though. I think it's a little weak, but not much.

6. Level 45 Talents. At least Blizzard agrees that this line is not fun and weak. What's sad though...is that it makes it the 2nd of worthless talent lines for Ele Shaman in PvE. So many ideas have been thrown around I don't need to add mine, but it would be nice to see some fixes before the release.

While I'd say that it's uninteresting in PvE, not worthless, that's not exactly the point. Across the specs, many talent rows are of limited value if you focus on only a single section of the game (ie, raiding). We don't see that as a problem, as long as it's only a 1-2 per class.

As I've touched on before, we feel that the level 45 talents are functional, and not causing any problems, so have bigger fish to fry at the moment. But, we'd be interested in revisiting them at some point in the future.

I'd be happy to discuss any of these topics further, as long as we stay constructive (and pending my available time, which is quite limited, as you may be able to guess). The frustration is understandable, but please leave the hyperbole and anger and useless sarcasm and generally destructive behavior out of this. Thanks.

Don't think of it as "that spell I'm forced to use and is so hard-to-use". Think of it as "that niche spell that I sometimes get to use skillfully for great gains".

Okay, I want an explanation on this one please. How is it still a niche skill to be used for great gains if the only way we can do damage with Chain Lightning to compete with other classes is if we use Earthquake? That doesn't sound niche at all, as a matter of fact, that sounds pretty much required.

The key is that that's exactly *not* what I said. Not using Earthquake, you'll be competitive. Earthquake is a bonus.

SET, again, numbers aside, boring as %^-*, the simple fact that PE affects this means there is no other logical choice assuming numbers are balanced otherwise than choosing PE with this talent.

It doesn't.

Echo is horrible for elemental, the way it doesnt work with ascendance, the way lavasurge can overwrite the reset, the way it can proc just after casting lavaburst so u lose 2 /3 procs in the meant time... The way it's a dps loss for movement...

I think your info may be out of date. I believe we've fixed all of those interactions (and if not, we will). Additionally, I'd advise you to post constructively if you're looking for constructive discussion.

The key is that that's exactly *not* what I said. Not using Earthquake, you'll be competitive. Earthquake is a bonus.

Current numbers don't support this; Earthquake is very high damage now and on mastery to boot. Should we expect Earthquake to be tuned down, and Chain Lightning tuned higher in upcoming patches?

Probably, yes.

<span class="truncated">...</span>

It doesn't.

How can you say it doesnt? If PE is balanced with UF and EB alone then it is viable to pick.

If SET is balanced against shocks / magma spew alone then it is viable to pick.

Therefore for maximum output / utility, if you pick one, you should pick the other.

If they aren't balanced individually, then again, in order for either choice to be viable, u r locked in to the other??

Number tuning doesn't matter here, logic does...

Err... Did you misread what I responded to?

EDIT: For anyone just jumping to here: Primal Elementalist does not buff the damage of Storm Elemental. It only adds utility.

I believe this is the interaction he was talking about.

For Elemental, Echo of Elements causes the next Lava Burst cast to not incur its cooldown. But during Ascendance, Lava Burst has no cooldown. So Echo has no effect.

Echo is also not consumed during the Ascendance, so still gives you one more after the Ascendance ends.

Comments

Comment by Esben82

So no mayor nerfs for the Enhancement shammys, ty so much blizz =)And with Ascendance bypassing armor, pvp might be do able for us again =) double dmg from the wolves, 15% more healing from the FS glyph and imp LL spreads to 2 more targets, me like... and FS have a 15% chance 2 reset the CD on LL =) soooo nice, booooom massive aoe dmg =)

Comment by Disintary

Bring back my 4 totems blizzard. Am I the only person that misses having the ability to place 4 totems that have an actual impact on a groups performance. i.e. Earth (attack power enhancement/armor), Water (healing tide/mana tide), Air (haste), and fire (searing totem, magma totem, and spell power totem). It really made the shaman class unique and fun. Now totems are just... well... cooldowns now. It really doesn't set them apart from other classes like shamans used to be. Please blizz give shamans this unique trait back and not just give us a silly cosmetic minor glyph.

Comment by jaeh42

So my Enh shaman heal went down to 60% from 5.2 to 5.3, now it goes down to 10% in 6.0 XD

Comment by Sakakii

I'm feeling very, very, veeeeery disapointed with these changes. It sounds like Blizzard rolled a d20 to see if shaman would get an upgrade or a nerf, and the dice rolled 1...like...damn so many nerfs. Instead of open the doors to the players play an hybrid class as they want ( mixing roles, being not awesome on a thing, but good at everything, like shammy was at Burning Crusade) Blizzard keep on closing the damn doors and trying to make an hybrid class, a bag of useless skills, and trying to filter the abilities as much as they can, so healing role will just heal, melee will just melee, casters will just cast...we cant even cast Lightining Bolt while walking anymore...I'm totally disapointed, as a Troll Shammy, if you see racial updates, they nerfed trolls too. Berserking will just give 15% haste, we don't do bonus damage anymore, neither to beasts and even with bows we sux...so...what to say about WoD? A piece of &*!@. Balance druids will rule that #$%^ on THE PLANET OF THE SHAMANISM that doesn't make any sense at all...

Comment by Krylan

I am hoping for some good game play in WoD. Shamans are a great class to play and I love it, but; We are hardly ever near the top of the DPS charts ( as elemental) and Blizard just took away our Utility. I hope more shaman players speak up for better chages than we are seeing now or we could be in real trouble next expansion when it comes to raiding.....

Comment by Azurics

Fantastic consolidation of information with the WoD class changes. Well done.

Comment by Duendelstein

Is nobody else concerned about how nerfed our hybrid abilities are becoming? Ancestral Guidance got nerfed hard, and we don't even have healing tide anymore as ele/enh. What exactly is it that makes us hybrids now, healing rain spam if you take that talent? But knowing Blizzard's history, we'll still be eating that hybrid damage tax, and warlock's will probably somehow still get the keep casting their filler spells on the move. I have no faith in Blizzard anymore at this point, though I really really really hope I'm wrong...

Comment by BlazeTheCat

The Mental Quickness change, removing the attack-power-to-spell-power conversion aspect, doesn't this just make half of Enhancement's rotation not actually scale with gear? You can't get Intellect on your gear while you're Enhancement, because the primary stats on armor are spec-dependent, so unless there's some under-the-hood mechanic that transforms Shaman spells to scale with attack power instead of spell power, the spells will just be insanely weak and not actually scale, right?

Comment by rehlyihmah

You guys worry too much about ele damage and raiding. As I understand it, utility is taken from other classes as well and they too get changes that sound like nerfs. Besides, we still have Bloodlust and a few healing spells and we can spec heal if necessary. Even the most powerful warlock can't do that and since there have always been varied numbers of needed healers since ICC I suspect that situation will still be happening.

Though for the life of me I cannot understand why casting during movement is such a horrible thing. I do prefer predictable (but not very effective...) Lightning Bolts over EotE-procs that cannot be predicted.

Anyway, I can't even imagine ele topping single target dps meters, so as long as it doesn't get worse, we should be fine! :D

PS: Lava Burst and Elemental Blast are buffed.

Comment by Delataar

It looks like Ele AoE is getting nerfed, but their single target DPS is getting buffed. I'm okay with most of these changes (although the unpredictability of EotE is annoying), but the Resto changes make me nervous. We've already lost Ancestral Guidance, and the change to Healing Stream Totem is a massive nerf. Nearly a quarter of my healing in raids comes from HST, and the reduced mana cost tradeoff is a joke. The mana cost of HST was negligible at best. I totally get the jump reduction in healing on Chain Heal, as the 100 talent would become massively overpowered, but there's a few things about these changes that make me a little nervous. Overall, I think these were necessary changes, and I expect that they will be adjusted as the beta continues.

Comment by niftyjaguar

Noooo give me back my bind elemental.

Comment by Eisonad

I have to be honest, I've been a Shaman user through and through during the entirety of my involvement with WoW. I've played other classes of course, but I'm a Shammy for life. These changes, overall, still make me plenty excited. All classes in my opinion seem to be trimmed down nicely thus far, and I can't wait to see more! Thanks Blizz!

Comment by aceplayer55

Uhh... Tremor totem nerf why?

Comment by Dunkelheit666

Nice.. While nerfing all other healers by either giving instant spells a casting time or reducing the effectiveness of certain healings , blizz absolutely buffed Resto Shaman , increasing the healings deleting no CCs granting a increased speed by Unleash Fury..Dont just think the PvE side of the game forcing Priests,Paladins to cast is a huge nerf while increasing healings of a already casting spec Resto Shaman..

Comment by Akhrod

"Enhancement suffers from having damage split among so many sources, so damage and abilities have been changed to reorganize damage into fewer and more impactful abilities."

Comment by zompokto

Could someone please tell me why shamans can't use 1h swords. There is so many nice transmits for them.

Comment by Arnastrasz

Only nerfs? Wow, lemme just level any other class then... because this is retarded.

Comment by gerodg

I just started playing Shaman and I enjoy it a lot on live servers.. Thing that i dislike though is not having the ability to jump around and cast my lightning bolt in WoD... It seems like a big part of being a Shaman is the mobility.

Comment by bloodyhooves

looking forward to the changes to shaman in WoD. been playing a shaman since Vanilla and they've progressed so much over the years!

Comment by Hoffen

Am I the only one that is still kind of upset that they have put no effort into making a viable 2H enhancement spec?

Comment by Juliette4698

Blizzard!

I see this whole community like a big family. Blizz are the parents and players/classes are their children. When parents treat their children different ways, then they are bad parents. And I have to declare that Blizz, you are treating your players different ways, thus you are our bad parents.It just has started. what I suspected long time ago. Shaman players started to reroll, and even to unsubscribe!Shamans are valuable paying customers as well, just like druids, paladins, or warriors, nonetheless they feel themselfs pissed off, outcast and disappointed, due you, Blizzard, you are nerfing this class from time to time, only taking away and not giving back anything.Definitely can't understand why you aren't struggling to accquire balance in this game. Utterly can't understand, why could there exist an always-favourite class (FOTM) like druids. It wouldn't be a shame if you would listen to the feedback of your customers.I have one question: Blizzard, why are you making shamans unviable, and extinguish as well?

A desperate shaman

Comment by Qlimaxed

Does anyone know if the PVP 4-Set Enhancement bonus will work in PVE? In Highmaul as an example